About this interactive
Two machines that talk to each other can be very different: a Windows laptop and a Linux server, a phone and a desktop, Chrome on one end and a service someone else wrote on the other. A protocol is the set of rules they both follow, so they can communicate anyway.
The lesson uses TechKnowDJ's app. It asks the server for the list of songs, and the server replies with them. What actually crosses between the two is only a string of 1s and 0s, so the rules have to settle two things.
Order of communication: the sequence of the exchange. Perhaps the app says hello, the server says hello back, the app asks for the songs, and then the songs are sent. Are they sent all at once, or one at a time? The protocol decides.
Message format: the layout inside a message. Each song has a name, an album, an artist, perhaps artwork and lyrics. If the two ends disagree on the order of those fields, the app shows the album as the song's name.
Two more points from the lesson. You would not invent your own protocol for an app like this; you would use protocols that already exist. And many protocols are at work at once, in layers, for even one request.
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